Job gain stretches to 5 months in row

U.S. employers accelerated their hiring last month, adding 288,000 jobs and helping cut the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

James Walsh

U.S. employers accelerated their hiring last month, adding 288,000 jobs and helping cut the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

It was the fifth straight monthly job gain above 200,000 — the best such stretch since the late 1990s tech boom. Over the past 12 months, the economy has added nearly 2.5 million jobs — 208,000 a month, the fastest year-over-year pace since May 2006.

The stock market rallied on the news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average topping 17,000 for the first time, the index's first big 1,000-point milestone this year. Trading was extremely light, though, and the market closed early ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

Thursday's Labor Department report made clear that the U.S. economy is moving steadily closer to full health after having shrunk at the start of the year amid severe winter weather that impacted retailers across the country.

"Clearly the figures are good, and I am particularly impressed by the fact that we have been over 200,000 for five months," said Vassar College economist David Kennett. "So we have more than 1 million jobs in five months."

June's job gain followed additions of 217,000 jobs in May and 304,000 in April, figures that were both revised upward. Monthly job gains so far this year have averaged 230,833, up from 194,250 in 2013.

The unemployment rate dipped last month to its lowest level since the financial crisis struck at full force in the fall of 2008 with the bankruptcy of the Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers.

Accompanying the lower unemployment rate was a continued reduction in the labor force, which includes both employed workers and those looking for jobs. Locally, Ulster County's labor force declined by 1,200 workers in May compared to a year earlier. The Orange-Dutchess metropolitan area lost 4,400 people from its labor force, and Sullivan's dipped by 1,100. Economists attribute that in part to workers dropping out in discouragement over their inability to find jobs.

Just 62.8 percent of adult Americans are working or are looking for a job, compared with 66 percent before the recession.

"Certainly it seems that participation is still low and some workers have obviously withdrawn from the labor market," Kennett said, "but whether permanent or temporary we do not know. My guess is that more workers will come off the sidelines as the economy improves."

Blair has also noticed increased interest by local employers in hiring workers. Orange Works is helping United Natural Foods Inc. find 150 workers it needs by September, when the company's new Montgomery distribution center begins receiving goods, plus 200 more needed by late October, when shipping starts.

One challenge remaining is whether the job gains will pull more Americans back into employment and lift wages that have barely budged. Average wages have grown just 2 percent a year during the recovery, below the long-run average annual growth of about 3.5 percent.

"The dark side of this recovery is that the jobs being created are low-skill, low-wage," Kennett said. "Retail jobs are not middle-class prosperity."